Lojban and Chinese, A Word A Day
spati ⇔ plant ⇔ 植 zhi2 物 wu4 .
物 ⇔ object. 食物 ⇔ food. 动物 ⇔ animal. 植 ⇔ vegetable or vegetation. 植物 ⇔ plant. Trees, flowers are all 植物, or spati in lojban.
fagri ⇔ fire ⇔ 火 huo3
glare ⇔ hot ⇔ 热 re4 , 烫 tang4 .
In Chinese, high temperature is 热 re4. Hot as dangerous is 烫 tang4. (熱 ⇔ 热,燙 ⇔ 烫)
The word 很 means “very”. To say “that water is hot”, we do not say “那水烫”, but we have to add the 很 like “那水很烫”. If we want to say “that water is very hot”in Chinese, it's “那水非fei1常chang2烫”. 非常 means “very”.
recall that “cu” indicates the end of x1 word.
djini ⇔ money ⇔ 钱 qian2 .
what ≈ ma ≈ 什 she2 么 me3 .
The word ma is a placeholder for a unknown word, and makes the sentence a question. It is somewhat like “what” in English, as in “you do what?” (what did you do), “you want what?” (what do you want), "you go where?" (where did you go), “that is what?” (what is that), “you are what years old?” (how old are you). In Chinese 什么 is similar, and its usage is similar to lojban, as a placeholder for unknown words.
Here are some example using words we have learned:
- do djica ma
- do klama ma
- ti skari ma
- ma cortu
- cortu ma
- ma barda
- ta barda ma
- ta stedu ma
- ma vikmi djica
- ma taske
- ma zvati
- do zvati ma
- ti danlu ma
- ma xamgu
- xamgu ma
- ma tatpi
- le cipni ku zvati ma
- ma na sipna
- ma gletu ma
- do citka ma
- pinxe ma
- do xagji ma
- ma tcika ti
- xu do cadzu le djacu
- do prami ma
- ma prami do
- ma dacti
- ma na gleki
- do gleki ma
- xu ti lanzu do
in English:
- what do you want?
- where are you going? or Where did you go?
- what color is this?
- who is hurt?
- where does it hurt?
- what is big?
- in what way that's big?
- whose head is that?
- who wants to go the bathroom?
- who is thirsty
- who is there?
- where are you?
- what species is this animal?
- what's good?
- good for what?
- who is tired?
- where's the bird?
- who is not sleeping?
- who fucked (slept with) whom?
- what are you eating?
- what are they eating?
- what are you hungry for? (what do you want to eat)
- what time is it?
- is it true you walked on water?
- who do you love?
- who loves you?
- what thing?
- who is not happy?
- what are you happy about?
- is this your family?
么 ⇔ 麼.